By Lara Malvesí
Barcelona, Spain, (EFE).- Maha Altaher and Mahmoud Khdair, both Palestinians from Gaza and parents of young children battling cancer, made a heart-wrenching decision, to leave behind their spouses and other children in the war zone to save the lives of their sick toddlers.
Due to strict limitations at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, neither was allowed to travel with their full family.
Instead, they were forced to split their households, uncertain if they would ever reunite.
Mahmoud has a 3-year-old daughter still in Gaza, Maha left behind two other children, aged 8 and 9.
Since April, both have been living in Barcelona, where their children, barely two years old, are receiving treatment at Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital, a leading center for pediatric oncology.
‘I’m living between two wars’: A mother’s fight for her son
“I’m living between two wars: the one here, fighting my son’s cancer, and the one in Gaza, with bombs and hunger tormenting my husband and other children,” Maha told EFE. “Both involve the possibility of death.”
Though she has lived through several conflicts since birth, Maha says none compares to the devastation since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel, prompting a relentless military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, the Israeli response has so far killed over 55,000 people and injured nearly 129,000.
The region is facing mass destruction and total food shortages.
Despite the uncertainty and trauma of family separation, Maha believes she made “the right decision” to save her son.
“He could have died not just from the tumor, but from the bombs. Only death awaited him there,” she said.
Their evacuation was part of a coordinated humanitarian operation involving the Spanish government, the European Commission, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the NGO Accem, which is now supporting the families in Spain.
Thirteen children and 23 relatives were flown out of Cairo as part of the effort.
“We had a normal life—nothing extravagant, but a happy one,” Maha recalled. “Now, I just hope my husband and other children can join us. Spain is the first place I’ve ever felt what security and a future could mean.”
A father’s pain, ‘My son hugs his mother’s photo on the phone’
For Mahmoud, a lawyer by profession, the pain is compounded by the many loved ones he had to leave behind, including aging his parents, for whom he was the primary caregiver.
His son Hassan is being treated for eye cancer, which doctors identified after a bomb struck his face when he was still an infant.
“We had a stable life, then everything was destroyed,” Mahmoud said. “In Gaza, the suffering is beyond description.”
He described spending the first phase of Hassan’s illness moving from one refugee camp to another, living in tents.
While his son has begun to recover physically, the emotional toll remains heavy.
“He calls for his mother constantly,” Mahmoud explained. “He hasn’t seen her since we left. When he sees her picture on my phone, he hugs it.”
Meanwhile, Mahmoud’s daughter back in Gaza is desperate to see her father and brother. “She doesn’t understand. She thinks I abandoned her. It’s heartbreaking,” he said.
According to UNICEF, more than 15,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s military operation.
For families like Mahmoud’s and Maha’s, escape meant survival, but also profound emotional loss. EFE
lmi/seo